Austin Food Businesses Required to Compost Leftover Food by 2017

After a year and a half of planning, Austin, Texas implemented new legislation that will require all food businesses in the city to compost their extra food by 2017, Waste & Recycling News reports. This is the city’s latest move towards achieving their goal of rerouting 90% of waste away from landfills by 2040.

However, some establishments might be less willing to comply. It costs roughly $300 to maintain a recycling program each month, and financially shaky restaurants might not have that freedom. Additionally, restaurants located in downtown Austin might not have room to compost.

This regulation seems to be a step in the right direction for the city. Downtown Austin’s “Dirty Sixth,” a street known to be popular for bars, tourists and students, is occasionally covered in trash. Drew Curren, chef and partner at the ELM Restaurant Group, told the Austin Chronicle that in 2012, “we had to call 911 two to three times a day.” However, an initiative has been implemented to clean the area by way of clean up crews and introducing new ways to dispose of waste.

There has also been some recent news about using food waste to enhance other foods, although we're not sure how we feel about that. ScienceDaily noted that the PROSPARE project in Europe encourages reusing discarded meat proteins to enhance the nutritional value of ice cream, and using excess fish proteins to make sports diet supplements.